Monday, May 03, 2010

Hope all puzzlers had a great weekend. Here's today's puzzle, straight from the mind and words of PCS Season II runner-up Josh:

To solve this puzzle, you will need to use the clues to find the following 22 word pairs. The first word in each pair will be three (Pairs 1-4), four (Pairs 5-14), or five letters (Pairs 15-22) long. The second word in each pair can be formed by adding a pair of letters to the first word. (For example: RED, RAZED) When you have all 22 word pairs solved (plus the freebie to get a total of 23), you will use those added letter pairs from the second word of each pair to uncover a secret clue. The answer to that secret clue is a former Dodger.

Note: You get one freebie in the secret clue because I wrote myself into a corner on one of the word pairs.

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a former Dodger. Watch the comment thread for possible hints from Josh S. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

Email us with the first and last name of the Dodger player who is the answer, along with your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and

Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun, all are welcome!

To clarify: There are 23 letter pairs used in the secret clue, but you only have to solve 22 of them. The "23" in the fourth sentence of the first paragraph should say "22". That's a typo on my part. (You solve 22, and add them to the one freebie, making 23.)

Hmmm...I'm not sure what I can offer as far as a hint for the secret clue. It's essentially a jigsaw puzzle, with the letter pairs as pieces. The RW is in its correct position, so building off of that would be my only suggestion.

If you're stuck on the word pairs, I'd say try figuring out the word on the left first. It will only have 3, 4, or 5 letters. Consequently, their partners will have 5, 6, or 7 letters.

If no one has made any progress by 1pm Pacific or so, I'll share how many words are in the secret clue and how many letters in each word.

I have twenty solved and four states, which means the two I'm missing must be state abbreviations. That doesn't really help much, since I'm not going to go through the other 46 states and work backwards. But at least it will help to confirm an answer if I stumble upon it. Thanks, Josh. :)

Re: The word pairs. As with most crossword puzzle clues, some are punny plays on words and some are literal definitions. Solving one side will really help you get the other. If you think you have the word on the left, add two letters somewhere to get a word that fits the second clue. If you think you have the word on the right, subtract two letters to get a word that fits the first clue.

If anyone wants to email me your progress, I can let you know if you're on the right track or not. CC the Sons' email, just to keep things on the up and up. Answers sent to me don't count as official entries, of course.

jschippe @ charter.netor josh.schippe @ gmail.com(Charter seems to be down at the moment.)